Natural antidepressants are food supplements based on extracts of herbs or medicinal plants and natural substances, capable of acting on the mood, restoring the right tone .
In medical practice, two types of depression are recognized and kept separate, based on the cause: a biological depression, and a psychogenic depression.
Biological depression is caused by alteration in neurotransmitter mechanisms, so natural antidepressants will be composed of plants active on neurotransmitters, which support their function of conveying information, between the cells making up the nervous system, and regulating mood. .
Psychogenic depression is instead due to a series of inner reactions and conflicts resulting from an event, which has exaggeratedly changed the patient's mood. For this type of disorder natural antidepressants will be composed of Bach flowers, and essential oils, which bring benefits on depressive states, placing the patient in front of all those aspects of his life, which can somehow be the cause of depression and to implement change and healing in this way.
Depression and mood
Depression is defined as a mood disorder, characterized by a series of physical, behavioral and psychological symptoms which, taken together, are able to diminish the tone, debilitating the person and undermining his ability to adapt .
Each person has their own mood which tends to manifest more frequently. This can be considered as characteristic of the subject, as a character habit and as part of the person's temperament. It is the result both of a basic biological endowment of the individual, of his hereditary constitution, and of the modifications due to the environment of growth and development of the personality (including the factors present during the intrauterine life). So the concept of mood indicates the emotional aspect of our underlying mental activity.
However, the mood also depends on the production of endorphins secreted by our brain. These substances have analgesic or stimulating properties, similar to those of morphine and opium, but with a wider and non-toxic extent. When a particular nerve impulse reaches the vertebral column endorphins are released under specific conditions and on particular occasions such as exhausting physical activities (bodybuilders and / or advanced athletes are addicted to intense training that causes great release of endorphins), meditative states deep and strong emotions .
The main effects of the release of endorphins manifest themselves as a state of euphoria or somnolence, more or less intense depending on the quantity released, which can also occur in the conclusion of a sexual relationship, from which the typical psychophysical condition related to it probably derives. .
Natural antidepressants: medicinal plants
Natural antidepressants used in herbal medicine for the treatment of biological depression are plants that help fight sadness, regulate mood and stabilize the mood .
- The flavonoids of hypericum, exert an antidepressant and sedative action, obtained only from the dry extract or from the mother tincture ; hypericin, in particular, inhibits two enzymes responsible for the deactivation of various mediators of the central nervous system (serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline) and increases the nocturnal secretion of melatonin, helping against insomnia. It is also able to increase serum serotonin levels, similar to certain antidepressant drugs. Several studies have shown that hypericum extract limits the reabsorption of two other neuroreceptors called noradrenaline and dopamine that play an important role in depression, mood swings during the menopause period, seasonal depression and periods of nervous exhaustion .
- Rhodiola produces an increase in the plasma concentration of beta-endorphins, able to prevent hormonal changes indicative of stress.
- The seeds of griffonia contain 5-hydroxy-tryptophan (5-HTP), a precursor of serotonin, which in our body is involved in various physiological functions. By raising serotonin levels, griffonia is able to improve mood, sexuality and sleep quality ; promotes pain threshold control; and helps to regularize the sleep-wake cycle, body thermoregulation, appetite, thus eliminating anxiety and depression.
Also through the diet, we can integrate foods and substances, which contain minerals and vitamins with an antidepressant action . In fact, spirulina, maca or pollen, besides seasonal fruit and vegetables, are very rich sources of B vitamins and magnesium, fundamental nutrients in the production of serotonin, and for the correct functioning of the nervous system . Cashews are also a valid aid against depression, due to their high content of tryptophan and vitamin B6.
Spring stress, the Andean Maca to help
Natural antidepressants: Bach Flowers
Bach flower remedies for depression represent a vibrational type of therapy that helps to deal with the emotional discomforts and psychosomatic disorders that accompany this disorder. Discovered and elaborated in the 1930s by the English doctor Edward Bach, flower therapy is based on the principle that the manifestation of illness is nothing but the physical effect of psychological causes, a sort of " instrument " that our soul uses to make us aware of our wrong way of seeing or facing life. The deep action of Bach flowers improves and corrects emotional imbalances, caused by external events, or a negative attitude arising from our personality, promoting the opposite virtue to the specific mood we are experiencing.
Once we recover emotional healing, we can also see benefits on a physical level, such as improving mood and vitality. Antidepressant Bach flowers include Sweet Chestnut, Gentian, Wild Rose, Gorse and Mustard. The purchase of Bach flowers takes place mainly in herbal medicine or in a pharmacy where it is possible to have your personal mixture prepared. This mixture is composed by the flower therapist, homeopath or naturopath after an interview-interview, aimed at bringing out the problems that afflict the person, to associate them with flower remedies corresponding to altered moods.
Natural antidepressants: essential oils
Essential oils are the remedies used by aromatherapy, a holistic natural cure that intervenes on physical, mental and spiritual processes, rebalancing the state of general health. The aromas that come from flowers, leaves, berries and barks, in fact, can be considered " the soul of plants", since they are the result of the extraction of their volatile substances .
Their action is never just something limited and highly specific to an organ or an apparatus, but they carry out a general activity on the organism. In fact, through the perception of odors, aromatherapy involves the sphere of emotion, memory, sensitivity and all related cognitive areas ; in addition to the endocrine system and the immune system .
Unlike the other senses, the olfactory stimulations are the only ones to pass directly into the cerebral cortex, without being filtered by the receptor center of the thalamus for a preliminary analysis. The aromatic molecules that spread in the air thus reach the upper part of the nasal cavities. Here the olfactory cells, once stimulated, transform the chemical stimulus into electrical impulses which in turn stimulate the centers appointed to smell. This explains why a smell or a perfume can instantly evoke extremely vivid memories of experiences lived a long time ago, in a much more intense way than that evoked by an image or a sound.
For this reason, the use of essential oils is very indicated in the treatment of depression, anxiety, emotional disorders and mood disorders. The most suitable for their antidepressant action are: the essential oil of orange, bergamot, neroli, sage, cinnamon and cypress.
